About us

Background

AFJC was founded by a 27-season veteran of Alaska's salmon, herring and halibut fisheries. He had two aims: first, to provide his fellow skippers with access to a much-broader pool of motivated and adventurous crew job applicants; and second, to make it possible - for the first time - for people from all over the United States to connect directly with hiring skippers and experience the wonders and rewards of Alaska. It sounds corny, but Alaska is still a land of opportunity - big enough and wild enough to make a lot of dreams real.

The Handbook

That skipper consulted closely with fellow skippers in developing the Alaska Fishing Jobs Handbook. The handbook distills down the essential information that crew job applicants need about finding a good, safe, entry-level position. It contains real-world information about the work involved, the expectations that skippers have, and how to stand out as a solid crewmember who will be asked back, season after season.

Between Free and Very Low-Cost

AFJC provides Alaska commercial fishing skippers with completely free access to crew job applicants. As of spring 2011, an estimated three thousand crew members had been hired through AFJC. (Exact numbers are impossible to verify, because they rely on self-reporting.) Many of those crew members have found multiple positions over the years, in different parts of Alaska and on different kinds of fishing boats. In a monetary sense, their investment in AFJC membership has been repaid with interest hundreds of times.

Giving Back

AFJC contributes a portion of any profits to the United Fishermen of Alaska, who work on behalf of the Alaska fishing industry and continued environmental sustainability of the world's best-managed wild fisheries.